Biodiversity hotspots covering India and neighbouring countries lost 90% of original natural vegetation: Report

NEW DELHI: India and neighbouring countries, put together, have lost 90% of their original natural vegetation under their four common 'biodiversity hotspots' with the biggest one - Indo-Burma hotspot – being the worst hit by reporting loss of nearly 95% of natural vegetation from originally estimated area of 2.3 million sq. km.


The biodiversity loss figures were highlighted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in its latest annual statistical compendium on the state of India’s environment, released on World Environment Day last week.


Noting that the four biodiversity hotspots have been reduced to less than 10% of their original extent, the CSE in its report also flagged that 25 plant species have gone extinct in these hotspots which covers India and its neighbour in South Asia and South-East Asia.

Besides Indo-Burma hotspot which includes entire north-eastern India (except Assam), Andaman group of islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China; the other three hotspots in the country are Himalaya (Indian Himalayan region and the areas falling in neighbouring countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar), Western Ghats & Sri Lanka, and Sundaland (Nicobar group of Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Philippines).

The report noted that the original natural vegetation remains only in 118,653 sq. km of total 2,373,057 sq. km area of Indo-Burma hotspot; 100,571 sq. km of total 1,501,063 sq. km area of Sundaland hotspot; 185,427 sq. km of 741,706 sq. km area of Himalayas hotspot, and 43,611 sq. km of total 189,611 sq km area of Wstern Ghats.

The ‘biodiversity hotspot’ is the region characterised both by exceptional levels of plant endemism and by serious levels of habitat loss. There are 36 biodiversity hotspots in the world. Their combined areas cover 2.3% of the Earth’s land surface. The quantitative threshold for the designation of biodiversity hotspots, estimating their extent/areas, was introduced in 1999.

“Each hotspot faces extreme threats and has already lost at least 70% of its original natural vegetation,” said the Botanical Survey of India. It noted that over 50% of the world’s plant species and 42% of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to the 35 biodiversity hotspots.

The CSE’s report has used and compiled the publicly available data from the 'ecosystem accounts for India' and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) report on endangered species. It said 12% of 1,212 animal species in India, monitored by the IUCN under its Red List monitors, are endangered.

On forest fires, the report points out that 16 states, including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, have witnessed a significant rise in the number of forest fire alerts.

It said, “India has seen a drastic rise in forest fires since the start of 2021. As of May 1, the number of fire alerts recorded by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is 433,581. This is quite a jump, even though the official forest fire season of the country is from February to June.”